While I was holding meetings at Carson, the capital of Nevada, a man came one hundred and eighty miles through the terrible sand roads, from
the city of Austin, bringing a written request, signed by ninety-nine of its
citizens, asking me to come to their city, and preach Christ to them.

These sinners had raised money, and sent this request, although they kept
a dance hall on one corner of the street, and card-playing table on another
corner, and a drinking establishment on another. They sent me this word:
We are not satisfied with this business, or this way of living, but do not
know what else to do. But if you will come and hold a meeting with us,
we will quit all this business, and attend the meeting.

Why was this desire in the hearts of these men? Why this dissatisfied
feeling, when they were living wicked lives, and pursuing this wicked
business? Was it not because man is a noble being, though fallen, and it
may be a wreck, yet he is a wreck of dignity, a creature of great worth.

Man has a soul of vast desires, He burns within with restless fires.
I thought then, and think so still, if I could be the humble instrument in
saving one such soul, I could afford to die. The joy-bells of heaven would
ring louder and longer over such an event than over all the victories of the
battlefield, or any other earthly achievement.

I suppose, out of 1,500,000,000 of our race, not one person can be found
who is really happy, in the true sense, without being born again, and
having the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost.

In view of the lofty, godlike desires found in every human bosom, and the
vast capabilities of the soul, how weighty and appropriate those words of
Jesus: What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Oh, what
worth! What vast capabilities!

A. B. Earle, From: Incidents Usedů In His Meetings, published in 1888.